Mr Mali put up a post in Hindi on March 6 on Facebook offering to ‘sell’ his wife. He also uploaded her and their two-year-old daughter’s photo and provided his mobile number.

“I want to return the money I have borrowed from various persons. Therefore, I’m selling my wife for Rs. 1 lakh. Anybody interested can contact me on my mobile number,” he wrote.

When his wife learnt about it, she filed a police complaint, following which a case was registered against Mr Mali under IPC section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman).

Police found during the probe that it was Mr Mehra who had actually put up the post at Mali’s behest. Mr Mehra had allegedly loaned Rs. 2,500 to Mr Mali about a year ago. Last month Mr Mehra took away Mr Mali’s mobile phone, saying he would return it only when he repaid the debt.

When Mr Mali couldn’t repay, he gave Mr Mehra his Facebook password and asked him to put up an advertisement for the sale of his wife, so that the couple’s relatives and friends might come to know about his financial condition and help him.

According to the complaint filed by Mr Mali’s wife they got married three years ago. Fearing various lenders, he fled to his ancestral village while she and daughter moved in with her parents.